AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, okay, enough,” growled Lilah. She pulled Chong away, turned him to face her, and jabbed a finger into his chest. “We’ll get back as soon as we can. In the meantime, you are not allowed to die. Do you hear me? You. Don’t. Die.”
His smile came close to breaking Gutsy’s heart. It was filled with love and compassion. It was clear that all Chong—sick, dying Chong—cared about was not breaking Lilah’s heart.
If there were better reasons to cling to life, Gutsy couldn’t think of them.
29
“WE HAVE WORK TO DO,” said Trócaire.
The other refugees—now thirty-four of them—nodded and got to their feet. They were all dressed for the jobs they’d gotten since moving to the town. Waste removal. Light construction. Gravedigging.
Trócaire hugged each of them and whispered their names before releasing them. Ténèbres gave them radiant smiles as they went out, alone or in pairs.
When they were all gone, Ténèbres and Trócaire stood together in the open doorway, watching the sun fall pale and dusty through the smoke from the corpse pits.
“I love you,” she said.
Trócaire did not reply. Instead he watched a teenage girl and a battered mixed-breed dog walk along the street. He shivered.
“What’s wrong?” Ténèbres asked, frowning.
He licked his lips. “I… I don’t know, exactly. Just got a weird feeling.”
“Why? Because of that girl?”
Trócaire nodded. He leaned out to watch the girl and the dog walk away. “You know that old blues song? I forget the title, but there’s a line about ‘bad luck and trouble.’ Yes,” he said, nodding again. “Bad luck and trouble. That’s what she is.”
30
JOSE AND SUNNY-DAY RAY DOUBLE-CHECKED the quad, and Karen made sure the girls had more than enough food. The trailer pod held extra gas cans. Sam took a few minutes to sharpen Nix’s sword, giving it a razor keenness. Ledger went over list of spots where they had the best chance of making contact with the satellites.
Benny and Nix then went a few yards away to hold a brief and very private conversation. There was a lot of hugging and kissing, too. Seeing the sweetness between Nix and Benny made Gutsy yearn to see Alice.
They were all gathered outside the exit of the tunnel, which emptied into the Texas Rose Car Wash, a single-story cinder-block building squatting just off a main highway. The morning was clear and bright, the sun just above the horizon and a few cotton-ball clouds scattered haphazardly in the west.
From the outside, the Texas Rose looked like any other abandoned building in the Broken Lands, with cracked pavement, grimy windows, and dead cars and old bones tangled in the weeds.
“I passed this place a hundred times,” said Gutsy. “I never knew.”
“Kind of the point of a secret entrance,” Ledger said dryly.
The captain went over the functions of the satellite phone in detail, despite both Nix and Lilah assuring him that they already understood how it worked.
“I don’t care,” he said, and continued his lecture. Gutsy paid a great deal of attention, though, because she found the device fascinating. Ledger had Nix demonstrate the method of making calls, and each time she pressed a button there was a burst of harsh static. He also double-checked that the solar charging panels from Benny’s backpack were working. When he was completely satisfied, he stepped back, folded his arms across his chest, and frowned. It was the first time Gutsy had seen him look truly worried.
Lilah hugged Chong for a very long time, kissed him, hugged him again, and then pushed him back. “I mean it,” she warned. “Don’t die.”
“Staying alive,” said Chong. “Got it. Top of my to-do list.”
Lilah gave a stern nod and then stalked to the quad, snapping her fingers for Nix to follow. Nix, amused, shrugged and went to climb onto the back; however, Gutsy ran up and pulled her aside. She bent close and spoke rapidly in Nix’s ear. The little redhead listened, then looked up at Gutsy, smiled a great smile, and nodded. Then she climbed onto the back of the quad. Lilah started the engine and drove off without another word. Nix looked back until they were out of sight, lost in dust and distance.
“What was that all about?” asked Benny, but Gutsy just shrugged.
“Maybe nothing,” she said. Benny started to say something else, then let it go.
The sound the machine made was so strange to Gutsy. Machines were rare in her world, and those that worked were usually clockwork, steam-driven or hand-cranked. She shook her head.
“So loud,” Spider said, mirroring her thoughts. “How did people deal when there were machines like that all over? Cars and planes and all that?”
